The summer comes to an end

Here we are at the end of August.  Hana's bday is tomorrow, and after the annual Concert on the Green at my parent's neighborhood, the summer will officially be done.  A lot of people have been asking me if I have enjoyed being at home and if I am going to go back to work soon.  I think I eventually will, I just don't know when.  But I don't miss my old job (although I miss the people and "working" in a generic sense), which tells me I made the right decision.  I achieved my goals of bonding with the kids before Emi started kindergarten, and getting the sleep issue fixed.  Our sleep issue is not 100% fixed, but it's better than it was.  Actually, we just passed our problem onto our 2 year old (great parenting, huh?) and Emi now sleeps in her room and rarely comes into our room now.  But there are other things that I didn't have time to do!  I am ashamed to say I only made it to the gym once this summer (but I plan to go on Thursday... oh who am I kidding, I say that every week).  I still have a handful of recipes that I want to try out, I need to rid our house of all our baby items (for about a week I started wanting another one, then that passed pretty quickly), I need to paint the kitchen trim, and I need to paint the bookshelves.  So lots to keep me busy!

Here are some highlights of our summer:


We kicked things off with Emi's graduation from Pre-K.  They actually marched in alphabetically, but backwards, so Emi was first in I'm proud to say no tears, but I did get those tingles in my nose as we waited for her to march in.


 Here is a pic of Emi on the last day of dance camp.  She really enjoyed it, so we are going to start her in dance class this week.  Someone this weekend said that I am in for a ride - lots of shoes, costumes, $$, as this studio is very into getting kids competition ready.  Oh oh, I can totally see myself turning into a dance mom, I have that crazy obsessive personality.  I have pulled both girls out of swim class, as they both are doing great and I honestly don't think it's worth it unless they are at Murray Callan, which was an amazing school that I miss a lot.  We have enjoyed the pool a lot this summer, and I tell time by when the pool pump kicks on, which sounds like a plane starting up!  If I am still lounging or on the iPad  when it turns on at 11am (like today), I am in trouble and need to get my butt in gear to be at least a little bit productive that day.

We celebrated 4th of July locally, and found an amazing spot to watch the fireworks.  Both girls made it through the entire show without getting scared and no tears (thank heavens, since I love watching fireworks).  The next week, Aunt Kara came to town to visit before her conference.  The girls really bonded with her, and cried for an hour the afternoon she left.  We now have another Facetime buddy that they ask to talk to all the time.  

Emi had been passing out invitations she made at school to her Birthday Pool party since April, so it was a bummer when her Bday party got rained out and we had to celebrate inside.  I think everyone still had a good time; and Aunt T, Jess, Caden, and Jordan all came to surprise Emi just in time for her bday.  Their visit was nice, and it was good to catch up with Jordan one on one, since it had been such a long time since we had seen her.  I can't believe she will be 21 this fall, where did the little 10 year old I met in 2003 go?  We took her around LA (btw, how is it that kids these days don't know who Jack Nicholson and other great film stars are?  They had no clue who most of the Hollywood stars were!), toured SDSU, visited Scott's office in Riverside, and had a packed week. Emi got a bike for her bday (since she had a balance bike we didn't put the training wheels on), and on the first day she was riding around all by herself.  I feel like we do experiments with our kids to see how they handle things, and adjust based on the outcomes.  Anyone else feel like that, and I guess that's just how life works, except as a parent the experiments aren't on yourself anymore...

Around the time of Emi's bday, Bear was diagnosed with diabetes.  Dogs get that, who knew?!  But he was drinking lots of water, and was having accidents in the house and in his crate when we left him at home, which was uncharacteristic of him.  Jokingly, I said it seems like he has diabetes, and lo and behold that's what it turned out to be.  Aunt T said that he did seem sad and lethargic when they got here, but he was back to his normal self after the first day of starting his insulin shots.  So now I am a SAHM mom and a doggie nurse.  I am just waiting for the day that I accidentally stick myself with that needle instead of him, bound to happen one day I'm sure.  So now we are at the vet every other week to check his sugar level, until we find the right dose of insulin, and he gets shots twice a day. My mom came to stay for a few days while Scott was in Phoenix, and my dad was in Alaska.  We celebrated my Mom's bday here, and Bear sure had a lot of female company/pampering that week.


Here is a pic of Emi's first day of Kindergarten.  Hana is all about wanting to be like her big sister.  I asked her what she wanted for her bday, and everything she mentioned is what Emi has (a backpack, legos, play-d'oh), so I am out of original ideas of what to get her.  I think she likes having Emi sleep in her room, and is so proud when she "slept in her bed aaaaallll night long", even though she never had that issue (but I reward her, too, with stickers and prizes when she hits a milestone such as 8 nights in a row).  Scott says we are creating little consumerist, but if it keeps them out of our room until morning, I'm all for it for a bit.

So even though it seems like I have been a SAHM for a long time, we have had events or visitors almost each week, so we haven't gotten into a routine yet.  Scott's surgery is next week, so Sept will also be out of the ordinary with Scott at the hospital and then at home for his 4 week recovery period.  I am glad that I won't be working to be able to focus on him and take him to his PT sessions without any other stress or commitments.  All in all, it's been a great summer, and I look forward to seeing what fall has in store for us!